Marvel Netflix Shows Don’t Have a Firm Release Schedule Yet

Marvel Netflix series Daredevil is now set to premiere in early April 2015, and will be the first Marvel TV show based in the Hell’s Kitchen region of New York. The second and third Marvel Netflix programs, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, have already cast their leads (Krysten Ritter and Mike Colton, respectively), and Marvel previously announced that it intends to have the first 13 episodes of Jessica Jones also available for watching on Netflix before 2015 draws to a close.

There have since then been reports indicating that the upcoming Marvel Netflix shows – a list that also includes Iron Fist and team-up mini-series The Defenders – may, in fact, be debuting a year apart. Recent comments from Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos don’t rule this out as a possibility, but also don’t indicate that there’s a concrete release plan set in place for installments in the Marvel Netflix side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe… for the time being, anyway.

IGN caught up with Sarandos at the ongoing TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour and asked for clarification about how much time will pass between each Marvel Netflix series’ debut. His answer was as follows:

“You should think of it about as roughly a year. Some will roll in as early as eight months and others in 15 months apart, and basically what it is is we’re not trying to meet a fall programming schedule or trying to hit a grid number, so really we want to give the shows enough time.”

Sarandon then emphasized that the important thing will be to allow each show proper time to both develop and find its audience, as he added that “I don’t want to set up a rigid timetable and deliver a show every eight months or every twelve months.” Basically, all that Sarandos is really confirming is there’s not a locked release schedule in place for the Marvel shows about members of the Defenders squad (case in point, he told IGN it’s “too hard to say now” if Jessica Jones will arrive in 2015 or not).

Krysten Ritter is Marvel’s Jessica Jones

If the Marvel Netflix shows were each to be made available approximately a year apart, that would mean The Defenders mini-series won’t happen until 2019 – the same year that Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 is scheduled to open in theaters. Frankly, it seems unlikely Marvel will make viewers wait quite so long to see the superheroes of Hell’s Kitchen team up together and fight some Earth-based threat – one probably unrelated to Thanos and the Infinity War, at that. Marvel has already been too careful about coordinating events on the small screen and big screen in its Shared Universe to allow such an overlap to happen.

Case in point: Captain America: The Winter Soldier fed into the storyline on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series.; and during its second season, S.H.I.E.L.D. has begun to build a foundation that will lead into the Inhumans movie happening shortly after Infinity War – Part 1 in May 2018. It seems more likely that the Defenders mini-series will likewise be part of the build-up to the Infinity War cinematic saga, rather than a part of it; meaning, Defenders should wind up being released on Netflix no later than the first half of 2018. We’ll see, of course.